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RETURN THE TIDE

If we step back from the emotionally charged day-to-day details and take a look at the larger picture, we can see that illegal immigration has little to do with fences, law enforcement or incorrigible employers and much to do with the disparity in standards of living in Mexico and the US. Are there any among us who would not do whatever we could to provide for our families, even break the law by crossing the border and pretending to be someone else if that was the only alternative?

"Illegals" are coming into the US for three primary reason. They can make more money here than they can at home (if they can make any money at all at home), enough even to support themselves at a higher standard of living and still send much of their earnings to their families at home. Secondly, with corporate-friendly international trade agreements (WTO, NAFTA, etc) driving the economic decision-making, US employers need the cheaper labor to compete with the wages paid to people who are working in Mexico and other less developed countries. And, thirdly, Mexico itself is living off the money that illegal immigrants are sending back to their homeland.

With millions of Mexican people working in the US, the Mexican economy is getting a steady infusion of US greenbacks from workers who send much of their paychecks back to family still in Mexico. It is a gift that takes some pressure off of the Mexican government, which has been unwilling to address the needs of its peasant / working class people. In "Power and Interest News Report" Jephraim P. Gundzik recently wrote: "Remittances from illegal immigrants in the United States are Mexico's second largest source of foreign exchange earnings and have become the backbone of Mexico's economy. In 2005, these remittances surpassed US$20 billion or 2.7 percent of G.D.P. By comparison, Mexico earned $35 billion from oil exports and about $12 billion from tourism revenue in 2005. [As Elections Approach Mexico Faces Internal Instability, Power and Interest News Report. July 2006] If by enforcing our immigration laws, we eliminate Mexico's second largest "industry," the current state of internal unrest would boil over and Mexico's fragile democracy would likely be overwhelmed.

If we press the government of Mexico to directly address its own economic problems in a way that encourages Mexicans to live and work at home, then we could collectively begin to relieve the inflow of illegal immigrants. However, because it is tied to so many other

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